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Cummings Issues Plea For Missing N.C. Teen

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BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A 16-year-old girl goes missing in Baltimore, far from her North Carolina home. It’s been more than two weeks, and still no trace of Phylicia Barnes. Now two congressmen are stepping in to help.

Weijia Jiang has more on the push for clues.

A meticulous search through a state park, a massive billboard along I-95, several vigils and prayers—but nothing has led to Phylicia Barnes, who vanished Dec. 28.

“Somebody watching us now knows something about this young lady. Somebody has been told about her. Somebody has seen her,” said Congressman Elijah Cummings, District 7 (D-Md.).

Cummings joins his colleague from North Carolina, where Barnes is from, to plead for help to answer her family’s many questions.

“All I want is my baby to come home so she can be reunited with her family,” said Russell Barnes. “That’s [what] a father wants, to end this nightmare.”

Even police admit they’re baffled by the lack of physical evidence and tips in this case. For now, they are re-interviewing the last people who saw Phylicia.

“If she is alive, she is scared to death,” said her mother Janice Sallis. “For anyone who gets joy out of that must be a sick perverted individual.”

Barnes does not know her way around the city. She left her money and credit card at her sister’s apartment.

Police say she was likely abducted.

“It’s like she vanished in thin air, and no one knows where she’s at,” Sallis said. “Somebody knows where she’s at.”

“I just ask my constituents to do it for me, and let us know if you know anything,” Cummings said.

Sallis tells us that Phylicia’s high school classmates are planning a vigil for her next week in North Carolina.

WJZ will continue to follow this case and will let you know as soon as Phylicia is found.